Hawthorne Race Course

Clear skies at Hawthorne

Well, our weather forecasters are wrong once again. After the forecast for rain all day yesterday, we didnít see a drop during the card as we had a fast track for the Tuesday races. Similar forecast for today, and fortunately a similar result as we havenít seen any rain as of yet and have a fast track for todayís eight race card.

Looking back at Tuesday, the track played very evenly for the nine races. The card was dominated by jockey Julio Felix as he had a perfect day. Felix came in to ride three on the day and won aboard all three mounts, taking three quarters of the late Pick 4. Jockey Tanner Riggs continued his hot riding with a pair of wins, both for leading trainer Joel Berndt.

The last three racing days have moved Riggs back up the standings as he is now second behind Jozbin Santana entering todayís card. Santana has 24 wins on the meet, followed by 22 for Riggs, then Tim Thornton and Florent Geroux are tied for third with 17 wins apiece. Riggs leads the meet for percentage ITM with 52 percent of his runners finding the board.

Trainer Joel Berndt has opened up his lead in the trainer standings a bit with 16 wins on the meet. Frank Kirby has hot a solid last week as well, moving into a tie for second with Manny Perez with 9 wins apiece. Perez is one of those young trainers to keep an eye on as he has placed horses very well this meet and gotten a great return.

Today Massecuite looks for his third victory of the meet in the fifth race and if he wins, he will be the first to that total in 2011 at Hawthorne.

Well, my entry was knocked out last Saturday, and then to make things worse, a brutal trip with Arrested by Duffy in the opener yesterday would have knocked me out again. Joyce Marie faces older runners today in the seventh, but she should be very tough and I like her outside draw and the position she should find down the backside.

Hawthorne Race Course is in its 102nd year of racing under Carey family ownership. Hawthorne races Friday and Saturday in February, beginning February 11. In March and April, live racing will take place every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday through the end of April. First post daily is 1:30 pm. For more information on racing at Hawthorne, visit our website at www.Hawthorneracecourse.com.